The Southland Times. PUBLISHED DAILY. Luceo Non Uro. THURSDAY, 20th AUGUST, 1885.

Southland Times, Issue 8091, 20 August 1885, Page 2

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED DAILY. Luceo Non Uro. THURSDAY, 20th AUGUST, 1885.

The attempt, which has apparently originated with the Receiver of Land Revenue in Dunedin, to bring about a change in arrangements which were deliberately entered upon many years ago in connection *ith the payment of land revenue accruing in what is officially known as the Invercargill Local Land District, cannot bo allowed to pass unnoticed. The Invercai'gill Chamber of Commerce has very properly taken the matter in hand. A. atrongly-worded resolution, deprecating the proposed change aa a direct breach of an agreement ratified at the time of the reunion of the Province of Southland to Otago, was unanimously passed, and copies of the resolution were ordered to be for* tfarded by telegraph to the Minister of Lands, the Hon. Dr Menzies, and Messrs Richardson and Hatch, with a request that the last-named gentlemen would seek the co-operation offche other members representing Southland in opposing the proposed change. ( It is difficult to believe that there is not, underlying this movement, o sinister attempt to deprive this district of some of the rights which it only obtained after a long and hard fought straggle In other words, as was pointed out by one of the speakers at the meeting of the Chamber, it looks as if the whole proceeding were but the introduction of the thin end of the- wedge of Dunedin centralism. Determined efforts ia this direction have had to be resisted from the very earliest daya of settlement in thispart of the colony. So far back as 1859, the handful of people then resident here had to protest against the laad. administration which forced into the market a large area of land, in 2000 acre blocks, for the purpose of raising an immediate revenue, all of which was spent in and around Duaedin. This agitation culminated in 1861 in the separation of what was thereafter known as the Province of Southland from the old Province of Otago, the eastern boundary of the new province being fixed at the Mataura river. This was looked upon at the time as a most unnatural boundary line. What had been asked for was the watershed of the Mataura. A very valuable tract of country was thus alienated from its proper commercial centre, namely, InvercargiU, and when settlement gathered upon this territory, very great inconvenience,as was pointed out in the Chamber by MrCarswell, who was one of the pioneers of the Matanra district, was the result. After a somewhat feverish and chequered career, extending over a period of eight years, a majority of the people in Southland sought, in 1869,t0 be reunited to ., Otago* The Otag# authorities consenting, a basis of union was agreed upon, the most important conditions of which were that Southland was io continue as a separate land: district, and that the extended district between the Mataura river and the watershed . was to be administered from Invercargill. Owing tq the weakness, however 1 , of several Southland members who were sent to the Otagd Provincial Council, this part of the .bargain was, not carried out, a oam^roniisielbeing effected^ vir., that the d^pufei territory should , be called the lwrm^o i?sn\ LaM-l)istrict,-J#d th^ the tteif er of Land Rem«o

cei'ver of LancTßevenue for the extended district.- This arrangement has now been in existence for more than fifteen years, and it has taken the people quite by surprise to find it\ asserted that great inconvenience ,has been the result. What is most to be objected to in the whole transaction is the insidious'manner? in which Jth'e change ' has been^ brought about. Without any warning -being given, the people most concerned in the. matter became suddenly alive to" 'the v "' fact" that through Borne de- ' partmental meddling,' which' usually, and, as it were, instinctively, ignores the public interest and convenience, a deliberate breach of faith was about to be perpetrated, and a radical change introduced—and all thisy we say, without^ warning, and without affording the public the slightest opportunity of expressing an opinion on: the desirablenesfi or otherwise of the proposed alteration. And when we consider that this com^s from a member of a Ministry whqjse Premier has been a vehement advocate of local government we may surely regard it as a sad illustration of the utter . worthlessness of political professions. Let us hope that tbe members for the Southland district will succeed in defending the rights of their constituents in this matter, and, as a coneequence, that the obnoxious edict issued by tbe Minister for Lands will be at once withdrawn.